"Answer at Once"

Letters of Mountain Families in Shenandoah National Park, 1934-1938

Katrina M. Powell, Katrina M. Powell

• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9780813928906
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia de Norteamérica

With the Commonwealth of Virginia's Public Park Condemnation Act of 1928, the state surveyed for and acquired three thousand tracts of land that would become Shenandoah National Park. The Commonwealth condemned the homes of five hundred families so that their land could be "donated" to the federal government and placed under the auspices of the National Park Service. Prompted by the condemnation of their land, the residents began writing letters to National Park and other government officials to negotiate their rights and to request various services, property, and harvests. Typically represented in the popular media as lawless, illiterate, and incompetent, these mountaineers prove themselves otherwise in this poignant collection of letters. The history told by the residents themselves both adds to and counters the story that is generally accepted about them.

These letters are housed in the Shenandoah National Park archives in Luray, Virginia, which was opened briefly to the public from 2000 to 2002, but then closed due to lack of funding. This selection of roughly 150 of these letters, in their entirety, makes these documents available again not only to the public but also to scholars, researchers, and others interested in the region's history, in the politics of the park, and in the genealogy of the families. Supplementing the letters are introductory text, photographs, annotation, and oral histories that further document the lives of these individuals.

1936

Resolving Disputes and Demanding Park Officials’ Responsibility

During 1936, the number of letters received at the park nearly doubled from those received in 1935. As the Commonwealth of Virginia officially turned over the land to the National Park Service and park officials became the legal administrators of the land, letters arrived with greater frequency from the people who remained there until homesteads were ready. As in 1935, letters arriving during 1936 contained requests for building materials, harvesting crops, and extending special use permits. Yet as residents continued to live on the federal property for several years, various tensions mounted with the government and, in some cases, among neighbors, reflecting the general anxiety surrounding the entire removal process.

The letters here represent the residents’ negotiations with park officials as they attempted to settle various disputes. Some disputes between neighbors resulted from the inconsistencies in policies. Early on in the removal process, Lassiter and the SCCD did allow people to cultivate land and to remove building materials. However, Lassiter had not anticipated that residents would be living on park property for extended periods. Granting requests to some and not to others inevitably caused problems among some of the residents. Therefore, in a letter to a local missionary on June 12, 1935, Lassiter wrote, “We did do this [grant cultivation requests] in several instances which resulted in so many disputes among the mountain people that it has become necessary to refuse all requests to cultivate other lands.” Lassiter was bound by federal government rules, but he was also firm in his belief that granting requests to some residents and not to others would be unfair. Because of the earlier shift in policy making, some residents assumed Lassiter and other park officials granted requests based on favoritism. Therefore, some of the letters reflect residents’ attempt to persuade Lassiter to grant their requests based on their cooperativeness and adherence to the park's rules.

Other disputes resulted from residents moving into vacated homes. As some moved off the mountains to homesteads or alternative housing, the others who remained sometimes requested to move into the vacated homes because of their condition or their location. Consequently, when the previous owners heard about these requests, several arguments over materials and land use resulted. As residents sought resolution, they implored park officials to live up to their responsibility and to take action on their behalf because the park administration was now the official authority over the land.

Skyland Va Jan 11/36

Mr JR Lassiter

Dear Sir I am Ready to move out of the Park Soon as my home is Ready would like to move Soon as I can as I want to get out So I can get some work to Do as thire aint any work up hear that I can get I would like to move By the last of next month & Dident get to move in the louis Nicholson House as he Dident move So I couldent move thire & Still live on the White oak Road near the Skyline Drive if I got to move this SPring I want to go now I want to get out of the Park So I can farm Something this year and April is two late to move and fix for to farm a crop Please let me no about moving By my father W.D. Taylor

Your very truly

Bernie Taylor¹

Swift Run, Va. Jan 13th, 1936.

F. D. Roosevelt,

Pres. U. S. A.

Your honor:

Please pardon for trespassing on your precious time. I would ask not for sympathy nor favors, but this—an extension of time for my son, C. E. Haney who “signed” for the houses in which we are now living in the park area.

He also signed for a “homestead” which I understand are being made ready for those who are to have them.

Now it is rumored this house must be torn down in a short time, if so, where will he go?

He has a wife and a little daughter to take care of.

Perhaps you'd like to know the location of this place. I'll tell you—We had a 100 acres here on top of the “Blue Ridge” now the entrance of the “Park” on Swift Run Gap. I am not ashamed of the old house, tho it does look kinda weather beaten.

I always loved my “mountain home” and never wanted to sell it, but as you know how it all happened, guess it is “gone” now.

Now if you can in some way allow “Bud”(we call him) to occupy the above-named place for at least a month or two yet, in the meantime, we could perhaps make some arrangements.

I'll tell you what I've been thinking—if we can borrow money to buy a few acres for “him”, and “they” would let us have the buildings to move from here (this place) we could arrange things. May we have them? Please.

I know there is some other “authority” perhaps I should have asked, but I did not know to whom to go, so in humble simplicity I come to you for directions and information. May I hear from you at an early date?

May God bless and keep you as one who leads our “nation.”

Fraternally yours
Lula A. Haney¹

January 28, 1936 Harriston, Va

Dear Sir

Will you rent me the place till Nov. 1, 1936 The Via place¹ 152 acre. You let me no by the 10 of March 1936. and will you give me a permit to move any of the old building on the Via track it is five building on the Via track. and you let me no about the renting and the building.

From James H. Blackwell
Harriston Va

January 31 1936 Nethers Va

Dear Mr J R lassiter

i want to no frome you if i can farme this lan under my pearmit like i Did last yeare and to trim the apple trees and to have the apples frome this orichard this year

ancer Soon

frome Dennis Corbin¹
Nethers Va

feb 1_19_36 Moormans River Va

My dear friend

i am droping you a few lines Just to ask a little faver of you and a little of your time and tenchen there is a old log house on the park property and a verry smoul house Right above that one i would like to Bie if you will sell them Right i have riten to Mr. Wilbur C. Hall Chairman about them and he told me to Rite to you about them and he was shore you could give me the necessary information of them and the price the old log house is on Mr. MaJer C.S. Roller Jr. Mr. t.J. Roller land in alimora [Albemarle] Co. and the place i think has about 16.00 Eakers in it the house has 3 little rooms in it the house is a verry old house and are not verry much good Just old log house But i could use some of it and the other house is about a mild above that one it is on Mr frank Pattesen land it has 4 Smoul Rooms to it and the old Ruff is not anney good and the flowers are Just about gon so much Rain and weat on it i think that track of land that this one is on is about 400 Eakers of land i have given you as near as i can the Reformary and condeashin of them the other man told me all the old Bildens that wouson verry much good would Be Sold But no good ones that could Be used woulden Be sold at all so i would like to Bie them from you and hope this will Be the last letter i will hafto Rite as this makes 4 letters i have Rote would like to Bie them and moove them Right away so i will close for this time yours verry truly

Mrs Polly Bowen¹
Moormans River Va

Feb 3 1936 Stanley Corbin¹ Nethers VA

Mr JR lassiter dear mr lassiter i will write you a line Regarding a place i would like to go one i would like to occypy the Walter Nichalson place as Soone as He moves out He Have Rented a place at Brightwoode and planes to move Some time next month and His place would Bee more Hander to my work as i Have a Summer Jobe as I am gote fether to walk then any of them that ar working one the Same jobe it is So unhandy up Hear for a doctor the doctor Said He was Not coming no whar only whar He could get in His car it is So lonsom one my wife When i am at worke in Site and Hearing of nobody So Plese Sind me a letter to occypy the Place when He gets aute Yours veary truly ancer at once

Swift Run, Va. Feb. 14, 1936.

Mr. Cammere.

Kind sir: Just a few lines in regard to the Park land as I am living inside the park. I have very small place on the outside Boundary line on both sides of the Spottswood trail. My buildings are very old. House and stable are about 75 years old. I signed up for my place and I have tried to take care of it just as it was whhen I am going to move out and when I move out if they do as usual it will be robbed anyway. And I am asking you if I can have any...